The Magic Forest Series was largely influenced by the German Expressionist, Franz Marc, the French Impressionist Paul Gauguin., and cave art in Lascaux, France. Prior to this series, I had made a number of prints using fish, wolves, birds, and mythical creatures in conflict. This piece was started while working with Krishna Reddy during the summer of 1974 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The series was a move towards an expression of feeling connected with nature.

Reddy, a master printer and accomplished sculptor worked with an electric flexible shaft and dremel bits, plus sandpaper, scrapers, engravers, and nitric acid. His printing plates were unlike any I had seen up to then-----smooth, undulating raised and lowered areas of metal that resembled low bas-relief sculptures.

The plates were inked up like a standard etching plate, and then large rollers of different hardnesses were rolled across the surface. Using different pressures, and different amounts of linseed oil in the inks had the magical effect of depositing the saturated inks at the different levels in the plate. All the colors that you see are carried on a single plate. VERY LABOR INTENSIVE.

This print was included in many national juried print shows, won a number of awards, and the edition is one away from being sold out.

The Magic Forest Series began as a direct outcome of studying Color Viscosity Intaglio with both David Driesbach and Krishna Reddy (former assistant director of Haytor's Atelier 17). The technique combines both traditional etching and relief methods; a sculptural bas-relief printing plate carries all the color through the use of large printing rollers with different hardnesses, and modification of the viscosities of the inks.

The imagery was inspired by Gauguin, Marc, and numerous cave drawings. The exposed ribs are a reference to cave drawings, rather than being gruesome. These prints + some others were the basis of my graduate work at Northern Illinois University.﻿